A Reading Life

Meltdown . . .

. . . in more ways than one. The snow has more or less gone now. There was another small snowfall yesterday, but it hasn’t amounted to much – yet. More snow is forecast. We still have that feeling that our plans are provisional and I am wondering if we are going to miss the pantomine at Buxton for the second year running. And whether the Kellybronze turkey that I have splashed out on this year is going to get here from Essex next Wednesday. The other meltdown involves the overload on my organisational abilities, stretched even further than usual for this time of year by subscription renewals for the CWA arriving in every post. Still, somehow there is always time for reading. I’ve finished THE DRAINING LAKE by Arnaldar Indridason, full of Nordic gloom, but a good story well told. And I’ve got three different books on the go now. I spotted Francine Prose’s READING LIKE A WRITER: A GUIDE FOR PEOPLE WHO LOVE BOOKS AND FOR THOSE WHO WANT TO WRITE THEM among the recent acquisitions in the London Library (though it actually came out in 2006). I haven’t got very far into it, but I can tell I’m going to enjoy it. I’ve also begun Dorothy L Sayers THE UNPLEASANTNESS AT THE BELLONA CLUB. And I am working my way contentedly through ORIGINAL SINS, the new CWA anthology, which arrived in the post yesterday. Stories by Peter Lovesey, Simon Brett, Reginald Hill, Martin Edwards, Kate Ellis and many others: a rare treat. I am in there, too, and I don’t suppose it’ll ever stop being a thrill to find myself in this sort of company.I might blog over the Xmas period, but more likely I won’t, so I’ll wish you all a good Christmas. I’ll be back the New Year.